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Drying hops in the afternoon was one of Patrick Daniels' chores on a German farm run by Franz Euringer, shown.
(Courtesy of Pat Daniels)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For Pat Daniels, it's not enough to love good beer. It's not enough to pour it, to sip it, to savor its flavors.
Daniels already knows all that. What he wants to understand is its origins, where beer comes from, its agricultural base. He knows well-made beer doesn't start by being brewed in a pub; it starts in the ground.
So Daniels, who grew up in Bay Village and who has worked in a variety of capacities at Ohio City's Bier Markt since its opening in 2007, went to Germany for almost three weeks this summer to learn by getting his hands dirty. Click here to read about a typical day during his trip.
Pat Daniels.
The affable Daniels, a 26-year-old who can muster a few words here and there in German but is not fluent, spent time at Cleveland State University after graduating from Bay Village High School. He also studied at the University of California-Davis and Siebel Institute in Chicago, both renowned for their beer curriculum.
Daniels started learning about beer by coordinating beer dinners at Bier Markt, and he also works at Market Garden Brewery across the street.
"After two or three years, I sought the origin of why I did what I did," he said.
He got into home brewing.
"I knew this was a good company to work for," Daniels said. "They allowed me to ... pursue what I was passionate about."
"He has really good knowledge about beer, styles, [food] pairings," Tveekrem said. "Mostly he brings a lot of enthusiasm. He set the whole trip up on his own. I thought, 'Wow, that's cool.' "
Market Garden – which Tveekrem says encourages employees to "further mental beer awareness" - paid for Daniels' time and airfare.
Daniels visited Germany and Belgium, bastions of great beer, about two years ago and "knew I'd return again."
He is obsessed with the origin of beer. "The chef can see where his animals come from, can forage for mushrooms ... Most brewers don't have the opportunity to investigate where their hops come from."
In January, as Daniels was working on the mash tun – a large vessel used in brewing that requires precise control of temperatures of ingredients – he thought again of Germany. "I thought I needed to get down to the dirt of where those hops came from," he said.
So in February he contacted a broker that represents German hop growers, offering himself as an exchange student of sorts – his labor for German know-how. It was a long shot, but soon he received a letter: "Patrick, best of luck on your growing adventure ..."
That kicked Daniels into action. He got an international drivers license and a passport. His girlfriend, who is from Bavaria, offered cultural pointers. The next thing he knew he had landed in Germany. He took a train to Ingolstadt, about 50 miles north of Munich on the Danube River. His eventual destination was Dunzing, about 10 miles east of Ingolstadt on the north side of the Danube, the northern tip of the Hallertau growing region. The area is about 65 square miles.
"I remember the first hop field," he said. "The train would go through what looked like tunnels of hops." Hops are grown vertically and can reach 18-23 feet.
Germany grows more hops than anywhere in the world, and Hallertau is the world's largest contiguous hop region. (Daniels is well-versed in hallertau hops, which Market Garden Brewery uses in some of its beers.)
You can almost smell these hops, eh?
Dunzing has only a few hop growers. In the town of 300 people, everyone knows each other, Daniels said. And based on antiquated noble rules, the village limits are packed tight, with farmland around it.
His host family, Franz and Rita Euringer, greeted him at the train station with a bouquet of hops.
"I'm here to get my hands dirty and help out," Daniels told them.
He soon found himself on the Euringer family farm, which began in 1952 and grows at least eight hop varieties. The family's patriarch, Franz, spoke some English, but his grown children, Simon and Mona, helped translate and accompanied Daniels on trips to hop centers, breweries and in the field.
"[Franz] shared the same opinion about hop farming that I did. He didn't want to talk about hops on the commodity level. He was genuinely interested in ensuring the aromas and the flavor of the hops."
Franz was a willing teacher. An award-winning hop grower, he mentored Daniels, who had to learn quickly how to drive a tractor.
On the third day, Franz turned to Daniels: Again, why are you here? "We haven't had an American brewer come here before. Our neighbors haven't had an American come to them, either," he said.
Daniels simply wanted to learn and soak it all up, earning his place at the dinner table. He learned about the advantage to the average German hop farm being 40 acres vs. 450 in the hop-rich fields of Yakima, Wash. (The smaller size means farmers can adapt quicker to the brewer changing his mind about what is grown.) Hop farmers are a communal bunch, too, visiting with each other to learn about any growing nuances or new techniques.
In Germany, nurturing hops is more than farming; it's a regulated industry. The Bavarian Land Institute is a huge commodity, Daniels said, and employs researchers to ensure quality of what is grown.
Daniels found himself in a good growing region for hops, which prefer 16 to 18 hours of sunlight in an area with good drainage. Growers, he said, are prone to say hops "like their feet wet and their heads dry." And the area – which has a climate similar to Cleveland's – does not have the same mites and diseases that can be found in the United States.
The beer styles of Germany – a country known for its wheats but not so much extreme IPAs – fit Daniels' palate perfectly.
"When it comes to beer, at the end of the day I appreciate the soothing 'aahs' of the flavors of beer, rather than the huge hop 'wow'. As a brewer, I knew the precise subtleties that go into beers like helles, weizen, pilsners. You're working with maybe one hop and one malt. The American brewer might do five hops and malt, with secondary fermentation.
But, he adds, "I can't say enough about the American craft-beer movement, incorporating flavors you would think couldn't be used."
Daniels is definitely part of the craft-beer movement. He sent hops back to Cleveland from Germany and will talk about his experience Thursday night.
And he hasn't forgotten his hosts. "I'm going to send them an American IPA for Christmas," he said.
"When I left I realized I chose the right people," Daniels said. His educational trip abroad "gives a reason to why I do this."